(Newser)
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Tyler Perry steps out of his comfort zone in Alex Cross, but this probably isn't the crossover hit he was hoping for. Critics are absolutely savaging the movie, with more than one writing that Perry would have been better off just playing the title role in drag as Madea. Here's a taste:

"Just about any schmo on the street could have made a better movie than Alex Cross, an uncommonly awful action-thriller that fails on absolutely every level," writes Rafer Guzman at Newsday. "It feels almost cruel to laugh at such a blindly stumbling, dunderheaded action-thriller, but you won't be able to help it."

It's "one of the most ridiculous, laughable and dim-bulbed serial killer thrillers in recent memory or ever," writes Glenn Kenny of MSN. The story is horrendous—"the case would have been solved by an intern on any random Law & Order episode before the first commercial break."

"You almost feel sorry for Tyler Perry," writes Todd McCarthy of the Hollywood Reporter. The film's climax "is a strong contender for the title of worst major fight scene ever to grace a major motion picture," with camerawork so awful "you can't tell who's hitting whom."

"Instead of playing the role in drag, the erstwhile Madea simply is a drag," writes Adam Nayman of the Globe and Mail. The movie "reveals the pitfalls of casting familiar performers in generic material." The bad acting prize though goes to Matthew Fox—both the actor and his character "are hilarious in spite of themselves."

Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe calls it "deeply, painfully boring," but people in the theater seemed to like it, applauding afterward. "Those people must have felt like they were in bed, watching a Steven Seagal movie on Showtime 14."